Driving the Mustang
Jan. 1st, 2022 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWhen we visited Hawaii last week we rented a Ford Mustang convertible. Here are my thoughts after driving it for 5 days and a few hundred miles around Oahu. Five Things:
1) First, this is not about the Mustang itself, but Hawaii is a great place to have a convertible. It's awesome to be able to drop the top and enjoy 360° views in this tropical paradise. It's worth the extra cost to rent a convertible... and yes, it did cost more. Of course, this being 2021, all rental cars were ridiculously expensive. Rental agencies reduced their fleets in 2020 when travel took a huge hit from the pandemic and can't regrow them quickly as demand has returned.
2) The top raises/lowers quickly... but with a manual latch. The Mustang's top seemed hard to use at first. There's a manual latch. Before running the motor to drop the top and fold it out of the way, you have to pull down a handle above the windshield and turn it 1/4 turn or so. Putting the top up is the reverse. The motor gets it mostly closed, then you have to tug it shut with the handle, turn it to latch, and fold the handle up. Coming from a series of convertibles (we've owned three) with fully motorized tops, this felt primitive.
On the positive side, the Mustang's convertible top was fast. Folding/unfolding took only about 6 seconds. That doesn't include the manual latch/unlatch, though. And it also doesn't include stowing the top beneath a cover— because there isn't one. That's another primitive feeling things about this convertible compared to those we've owned. ...Which, TBF, are all BMWs and all more expensive than this base Mustang.
3) Power. On paper even this base Mustang makes strong power. Its turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine is rated at 310 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque. Those figures are noticeably higher than those of our current BMW 230 convertible; its turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is rated at 248 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. But despite the Mustang being a hands-down winner on paper it didn't really feel much faster. Oh, it could scoot when I pushed the pedal to the metal, but (like our newish BMW) only after a delay from the computerized nannies trying to solve for fuel efficiency rather than responsive driving.
Still, if I were going to buy a Mustang, I think I'd find the base 2.3L turbo engine fine most of the time. Unlike in past generations of this vehicle years ago, when the base engines were anemic, this one's good for most people most of the time.
4) Handling. Yup, the steering and brakes work. The accelerator works... with the annoyance of the nanny I mentioned above. I never really pushed it hard in this car last week. Often the joy of a convertible sports car is not in blazing down the road as fast as possible but going the speed limit (more or less) and enjoying the 360° views. That said, one handling negative of the Mustang is its size. That bulbous snout you see so clearly in the picture I took above makes maneuvering in tight places, such as cramped parking lots and garages, a challenge. Our BMW 230i convertible is a whole 14 inches shorter, bumper to bumper. It's vastly easier to maneuver— and has no less space in the passenger cabin or the trunk.
5) Fit and finish. I know rental cars live hard lives so I'll try not to be too tough on this car that already had 35,000 miles on its odometer, but the overall quality was well below what we've enjoyed with our BMWs. One biggie was the top, with its partly manual operation and lack of a tonneau cover as I mentioned above. Another biggie was that the windows didn't close all the way when the top was up. 😳 There was a narrow, v-shaped gap between each front and rear. Even worse I think there was supposed to be a cheap, tacky, plastic trip strip that was supposed to attach to the sides of the rear windows to fill these gaps.
Beyond these problems the interior of the car just feels... low rent. Oh, it had heated leather seats that were partly power adjusted, partly manually adjusted (like the top! 😂) but It looks and feels like a base consumer car with leather thrown on. One thing we like about our BMWs, and for that matter the VW we owned years ago, is that with their materials and design they've all looked like premium cars.
1) First, this is not about the Mustang itself, but Hawaii is a great place to have a convertible. It's awesome to be able to drop the top and enjoy 360° views in this tropical paradise. It's worth the extra cost to rent a convertible... and yes, it did cost more. Of course, this being 2021, all rental cars were ridiculously expensive. Rental agencies reduced their fleets in 2020 when travel took a huge hit from the pandemic and can't regrow them quickly as demand has returned.
2) The top raises/lowers quickly... but with a manual latch. The Mustang's top seemed hard to use at first. There's a manual latch. Before running the motor to drop the top and fold it out of the way, you have to pull down a handle above the windshield and turn it 1/4 turn or so. Putting the top up is the reverse. The motor gets it mostly closed, then you have to tug it shut with the handle, turn it to latch, and fold the handle up. Coming from a series of convertibles (we've owned three) with fully motorized tops, this felt primitive.
On the positive side, the Mustang's convertible top was fast. Folding/unfolding took only about 6 seconds. That doesn't include the manual latch/unlatch, though. And it also doesn't include stowing the top beneath a cover— because there isn't one. That's another primitive feeling things about this convertible compared to those we've owned. ...Which, TBF, are all BMWs and all more expensive than this base Mustang.
3) Power. On paper even this base Mustang makes strong power. Its turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine is rated at 310 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque. Those figures are noticeably higher than those of our current BMW 230 convertible; its turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is rated at 248 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. But despite the Mustang being a hands-down winner on paper it didn't really feel much faster. Oh, it could scoot when I pushed the pedal to the metal, but (like our newish BMW) only after a delay from the computerized nannies trying to solve for fuel efficiency rather than responsive driving.
Still, if I were going to buy a Mustang, I think I'd find the base 2.3L turbo engine fine most of the time. Unlike in past generations of this vehicle years ago, when the base engines were anemic, this one's good for most people most of the time.
4) Handling. Yup, the steering and brakes work. The accelerator works... with the annoyance of the nanny I mentioned above. I never really pushed it hard in this car last week. Often the joy of a convertible sports car is not in blazing down the road as fast as possible but going the speed limit (more or less) and enjoying the 360° views. That said, one handling negative of the Mustang is its size. That bulbous snout you see so clearly in the picture I took above makes maneuvering in tight places, such as cramped parking lots and garages, a challenge. Our BMW 230i convertible is a whole 14 inches shorter, bumper to bumper. It's vastly easier to maneuver— and has no less space in the passenger cabin or the trunk.
5) Fit and finish. I know rental cars live hard lives so I'll try not to be too tough on this car that already had 35,000 miles on its odometer, but the overall quality was well below what we've enjoyed with our BMWs. One biggie was the top, with its partly manual operation and lack of a tonneau cover as I mentioned above. Another biggie was that the windows didn't close all the way when the top was up. 😳 There was a narrow, v-shaped gap between each front and rear. Even worse I think there was supposed to be a cheap, tacky, plastic trip strip that was supposed to attach to the sides of the rear windows to fill these gaps.
Beyond these problems the interior of the car just feels... low rent. Oh, it had heated leather seats that were partly power adjusted, partly manually adjusted (like the top! 😂) but It looks and feels like a base consumer car with leather thrown on. One thing we like about our BMWs, and for that matter the VW we owned years ago, is that with their materials and design they've all looked like premium cars.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 09:25 pm (UTC)BTW, I think the lag in acceleration is due to several things, not just "nannies". While those certainly exist, they're just the first step. You also have turbocharger lag, because it takes time for the increased flow of exhaust gases to spin the turbo up faster to cram more air into the intake. This is something that is miles better than it used to be when we were kids and turbocharging in cars was new, but it's still there now. (The Porsche 935 racecar was infamous for having over a FULL SECOND of lag! Which made it a huge handful at the track.) Another is that the automatic transmission takes time for the increased power to actually make it through to the wheels--and that's worse if it decides you need to downshift, because that takes even longer!
I'm seeing a lot more EVs here now. That makes all kinds of sense to me. Even on the Big Island, you can't go that far, so range is much less of a problem. Plus you can use fuel that is made here, on-island, rather than being imported from many thousands of miles away. And finally, back to the point of the previous paragraph, they have instant effortless torque to accelerate you NOW. (Or at least the Tesla does. Others somewhat less.)
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Date: 2022-01-01 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-02 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-02 06:32 am (UTC)Sunlight. There are tons of solar panels around here.
There are also several geothermal plants, though one of them here was wiped out by the eruption a few years ago.